I feel I'm just meant to do stop-motion. Live-action is much more glamorous to some, but it's basically a whole army of people focused on one thing. Henry Selick More Quotes by Henry Selick More Quotes From Henry Selick We are suffering from a glut of too many 3-D movies and not enough screens. Henry Selick screens enough suffering I feel like what we love to do is solve problems. If it's easy to solve, we find a more difficult one. There's always a way. In our world, we can build stuff. We can build more sets than you could ever build in live-action. We can build more props just for custom angles or perspectives. We'll build special trees for that, paint a sky. There's really no limitations, except that you run out of time and money at some point. Henry Selick perspective running tree I'm not a public enough persona to be big and loud at the front of the ship. I'd rather more quietly interact with the artisan animators. Henry Selick animator persona enough My mother is a huge fan of my work. I told her about 'Coraline' long before the film was made, and she got the book and read it. She reminded me that when I was about five years old, I used to sit in the kitchen for hours and talk about my 'other' family in Africa, my other mother and father. I had totally forgotten that. Henry Selick me family mother work CG can do anything, but it can't do everything well. What it naturally can do is special effects. But using stop-motion comes from our desire to do handmade stuff. There are always going to be kids who get out whatever it might be - clay, bits of wire, Barbie dolls, Legos. They want to tell little stories. Henry Selick barbie special want desire As a director, I'm not the one animating every frame, every shot. I'm moving around like a surgeon on rounds, or a farmer checking in on all the plants being grown, pruning and adjusting. For me, it's a very exciting job. Henry Selick plants farmer job me What stop-motion does best is present real objects magically brought to life in a very imperfect situation; the hand of the artist is there, the electricity of someone touching, massaging and torturing themselves to get life out of an inanimate object. Henry Selick someone best situation life We can still do a stop motion feature for about one-third of what it costs Pixar or DreamWorks or Blue Sky to make a feature. But nobody is interested in a film that cost $50 to 60 million with the potential to do $120 million. They want to risk big money to make huge money. Henry Selick nobody money sky blue I think it's important that kids see another kid - Coraline - who doesn't have guns, she doesn't have super-powers, she's not a super-genius. To see a pretty normal kid - I mean, she's probably a little more curious, a little more stubborn, but she's a real kid - go up against something that's truly dark and evil and powerful. And she does win. Henry Selick win think evil dark Kids love to be scared - there's way to do it right, and ways to do it wrong. Henry Selick wrong right love way Kids love to be scared; we all do. But there's a difference between leaving them hanging out there, with their fears, and then bringing them safely home. Kids love it when someone like them stands up against real evil, something really horrendous and frightening, and win. Henry Selick win evil home love Underneath this tired, middle-aged exterior, I'm an 11 year old kid. Henry Selick old year kid tired You know, I love stop-motion. I've done almost all the styles of animation: I was a 2D animator. I've done cutout animation. I did a CG short a few years ago, 'Moongirl,' for young kids. Stop-motion is what I keep coming back to, because it has a primal nature. It can never be perfect. Henry Selick short you nature love Morals always sound like cliches, but usually cliches are based on things that are ultimate truths. Be grateful for what you have; appreciate what's right there in front of you. Henry Selick morals you appreciate grateful If you're drawing humans, it can be detrimental to be too naturalistic, which is like animating little corpses. Henry Selick little like you drawing Making 'Coraline' was one of the great filmmaking experiences of my life. Henry Selick my-life great filmmaking life I learned my lesson that in the live-action world, you have to earn the support of people over a very, very long time. And in animation, I already have the support. Henry Selick you time long people I was at Disney for about four years, so I made good friends there. It was a time of not a lot of creativity. It was the end of the first great era, with a few of the original animators. They called them the Nine Old Men. I learned a lot from them, but it wasn't going to be a future home for me. Henry Selick good me future men Just like those little Viewmaster slides, there's a inherent magic that's captured in 3D that you can't get in drawn animation or in CG. Henry Selick just like you magic Puppets seem like vampires sometimes. They live, and you're depleted. Henry Selick live like you sometimes